Waist deep in a rocky
stream
(More holidays fic).
(i)
"Do you ever what
if?" Todd laughs softly and watches Bryan watching the ceiling.
"Once or twice. Odd question. Do you 'what
if'?"
Bryan' eyes slide around tracing the shape of the
crack in the ceiling.
"Of course." He finally says. "Once or
twice."
(ii)
"We should go on a holiday. Somewhere cold and
miserable. Calgary." It has the desired affect, Bryan is laughing.
"For the long weekend?" Todd tries to plead
without it being too obvious.
"Just the weekend? All right." Bryan thinks.
"I can get away for a weekend."
(iii)
It's something built into his character, Todd grabs
both the bags, not that the overnight bags are heavy, and takes them into the
house.
It is nearly dark, nearly nine o'clock and they both
decide that the sunset would best be watched from the dock being eaten alive by
mosquitoes.
The night comes suddenly, and just as suddenly Todd
wants to be very very very drunk. Bryan just watches, fills up his glass when
it is empty and they both fall into bed, like they are both out of it on
whiskey and Bryan kisses the back of Todd's neck, licks and sucks and chews at
the skin there, until Todd begs properly "please Bryan, please" and
Bryan turns him over and it's like a red bolt thorough them both and Todd can't
pick on sensation to focus on, can't feel only one thing, can't pick what Bryan
is doing that is making him shake and cry and come.
(iv)
Being on holiday means that Todd wakes up feeling
fine. He flexes his shoulders carefully and rolls out of bed. The sun is just
handing off the horizon, not quite awake either and it looks like a postcard
through the window. The mist wisping off the lake twists into the shape of a
woman's body.
(v)
Todd doesnŐt know why they didn't bring fishing gear,
but it is better to sit like this quietly. Bryan waits for him to speak, or
understands that silence and peace was what they came here for.
(iv)
The sunscreen scares the mosquitoes away at least, for
now.
"Night feeders." Bryan smiles and runs his
fingers around the red raised lump on Todd's arm that has yet to start itching.
(iii)
By Todd's guess, and he sucks at maths or anything
practical, it's why it was a blessing he was athletic, they have only had
fifteen hours sleep total, and here, Monday morning he feels fine.
(ii)
Because they are leaving late to miss the bulk of the
traffic heading back into the city they walk around the perimeter of the
property, just so they could say they had seen something that wasn't the dock
and the lake and the bedroom. Todd is sure that the house is furnished, but he
can't think of any curtains, what colour the bathroom is, what type of doors
there are; do they slide across or open inward?
The ceiling in the bedroom is water marked and a mess.
"Golf Wednesday?"
Bryan shakes his head and looks up from the white
lines on the road and stares at Todd with unfocused eyes. He looks like he
needs some sleep.
"Yeah, usual time?"
Todd "um-hmms" and Bryan returns to counting
white lines.
(i)
It is Tuesday morning and rolling over in bed, waking
up to the sound of sports radio Todd's hangover explodes behind his eyes. The
back of his neck burns. His sunburn itches and crawls down his arms.
